Wu, Yueh-Hsun2023-11-282023-11-282023-05https://hdl.handle.net/11299/258689University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. May 2023. Major: Psychology. Advisors: Gordon Legge, Stephen Engel. 1 computer file (PDF); viii, 109 pages.Visual impairment, which affected an estimated 596.5 million people globally in 2020, can lead to numerous challenges in daily life. However, those challenges can’t always be captured by standard clinical vision tests, such as visual acuity tests, contrast sensitivity tests, or visual field tests. This dissertation focuses on understanding real-life challenges encountered by people with visual impairment. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the dissertation. Chapter 2 examines the relationship between visual acuity measurements and people’s daily viewing experience. The results demonstrate that visual acuity, as measured on letter charts, can be estimated by people’s responses to a set of Yes/No questions asking what they can or cannot see in real-life viewing scenarios. Chapter 3 describes an online survey focusing on the reading behavior of individuals with low vision in the digital era. The results show that reading with vision was still the primary way to read, although audio or tactile methods can be used to access digital materials. Digital reading was also found to be used more than hardcopy reading. Chapter 4 reports on a longitudinal study that examined the impact of the first year of the pandemic on social isolation in older people with vision or hearing loss. The findings demonstrated that older people with visual impairment were more likely to experience social isolation and loneliness during the early pandemic in 2020. The studies presented in the thesis provide three perspectives on understanding the daily challenges encountered by people with visual impairment. These findings can be directly applied to better rehabilitation programs for improving the quality of life in people with visual impairment.enActivities of daily lifeLow visionPandemicReadingVisual acuityVIsual impairmentThesis or Dissertation